Introd. MEDICAL DIPLOMA. 7 



felt by the villagers in all public questions, and they furnished a 

 proof that the possession of the means of education did not render 

 them an unsafe portion of the population. They felt kindly 

 towards each other, and much respected those of the neighbouring 

 gentry who, like the late Lord Douglas, placed some confidence 

 in their sense of honour. Through the kindness of that nobleman, 

 the poorest among us could stroll at pleasure over the ancient 

 domains of Bothwell, and other spots hallowed by the venerable 

 associations of which our school-books and local traditions made 

 us well aware ; and few of us could view the dear memorials of 

 the past without feeling that these carefully kept monuments were 

 our own. The masses of the working people of Scotland have 

 read history, and are no revolutionary levellers. They rejoice in 

 the memories of " Wallace and Bruce and a' the lave," who are 

 still much revered as the former champions of freedom. And 

 while foreigners imagine that we want the spirit only to overturn 

 capitalists and aristocracy, we are content to respect our laws till 

 we can change them, and hate those stupid revolutions winch 

 might sweep away time-honoured institutions, dear alike to rich 

 and poor. 



Having finished the medical curriculum and presented a thesis 

 on a subject which required the use of the stethescope for its 

 diagnosis, I unwittingly procured for myself an examination 

 rather more severe and j>rolonged than usual among examining 

 bodies. The reason was, that between me and the examiners a 

 slight difference of opinion existed as to whether this instrument 

 could do what was asserted. The wiser plan would have been to 

 have had no opinion of my own. However, I was admitted a 

 Licentiate of Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons. It was with 

 unfeigned delight I became a member of a profession which is 

 pre-eminently devoted to practical benevolence, and which with 

 unwearied energy pursues from age to age its endeavours to lessen 

 human woe. 



But though now qualified for my original plan, the opium war 



thing of fits and starts ; for if you do not, temptation and other things 'will 

 get the better of you :" and Thomas Burke, an old Forty-second Peninsula 

 soldier, who has been incessant and never weary in good works for about forty 

 years. I was delighted to find him still alive ; men like these are an honour 

 to their country and profession. 



